Editor’s note: On Saturday, Donald Trump announced on social media that he intends to nominate Brooke L. Rollins to lead the Department of Agriculture. This announcement came more than 24 hours after several major news outlets announced that he intends to name former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler to the post. This story was published on Friday, based on that reporting. The headline has been updated to reflect the new reporting.
Donald Trump is expected to pick former Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia as secretary of agriculture, CNN reported on Friday, putting one of the wealthiest people to ever serve in the Senate in charge of administering the food stamps program.
The appointment appears to be yet another corrupt deal as well. Trump’s social media company is reportedly in talks to buy Bakkt, a cryptocurrency company that Loeffler and her husband helped build. Loeffler served as the company’s founding CEO, and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns a majority share in Bakkt.
Loeffler was also the owner of the Atlanta Dream, a WNBA team, which she sold in February 2021 after receiving backlash from players on the team over Loeffler’s criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.
But Loeffler is best known for her short-lived career in the U.S. Senate.
In December 2019, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia announced he would appoint her to fill the seat of GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson, who was resigning due to health concerns.
About one year later, Loeffler lost the special election to serve out the remainder of Isakson’s term—a loss that helped cost Republicans the Senate majority.
Loeffler was defeated in the runoff election by now-Sen. Raphael Warnock in a Jan. 5, 2021, runoff—just one day before Trump sicced an angry mob of his supporters on the U.S. Capitol to try to stop Joe Biden's victory from being certified.
Ahead of Loeffler’s runoff, Trump had been waging an effort to overturn his loss to Biden. Loeffler stood alongside Trump at a campaign rally a day before the runoff, where Trump spewed lies about his loss and said he would keep fighting to overturn the results.
Loeffler’s fleeting Senate career was marked by accusations that she engaged in insider trading. Loeffler dumped millions of dollars in stock after she’d attended a private briefing for senators in January 2020, as the COVID-19 virus first began to spread. Later, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and the U.S. stock market crashed. The Senate probed the alleged insider trading and cleared Loeffler of wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, the allegations plagued her in her race against Warnock, who used the allegations of insider trading in campaign ads.
Trump is now offering Loeffler a consolation prize: a return to Washington, D.C., as head of the Department of Agriculture, which helps craft agricultural policy, assures food safety, and seeks to end hunger with the Food and Nutrition Service.
As for whether she’s qualified for the job, Loeffler grew up on her family’s farm, which received millions in farm subsidies and bailouts. That gives her more understanding of the department she’ll be tasked with overseeing than many of Trump’s other disastrous picks.
And she’ll fit right in with the rest of the junk in Trump’s Cabinet, as she’s another corrupt and wealthy person.
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